Medical care negligence in private hospital paitent death

To whom it may concern,
Referencing Patient; LATE SHRI Kishorilal Sharma
My name is Nirmal K Sharma. I am writing today to make a formal complaint on behalf of myself and my family concerning the quality of care given to my late Husband, Kishorilal Sharma, at pravite Hospital, Ahmedabad. The negligence of staff caused numerous ailments during my Husband’s stay, eventually culminating in his passing.
Upon admission to the hospital my Husband’s papers were not fully completed by medical staff, causing problems later on in his time at the hospital which I will go into later. His initial observations were not comprehensive enough, not fully taking into account his fluctuating diabetes at the time. On 27th December he was given a test checking the function of his bladder, kidneys and pancreas which all came back normal.
On 28th December my Husband’s blood pressure (BP) increased dramatically and his insulin levels were not stable. At this point he was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). The following day he was given a very high dose of insulin in an attempt to control his diabetes, and a catheter was administered, as at this point he had lost consciousness. He regained consciousness on 31st December and was unable to eat or speak. The staff at this point were extremely rude to myself and my family; they were not very forthcoming with any kind of explanation for what might have happened to my Husband. After much persistence from ourselves, we managed to get details from several different doctors, nurses and medical officers, all giving us different information. There was so much miscommunication between all members of staff! As previously mentioned, his initial examination of kidneys, pancreas and bladder came back normal, yet after this event took place and they retested, it became apparent that he had kidney damage. Surely that would have been picked up on the initial test? Was it conducted thoroughly?
On 31st December it became apparent that he suffered with fluid on his spinal cord. The doctor at that time advised he would be taking 30cc of fluid for investigation and a following two days of 30cc was to be removed as well. The second day no one had taken any more fluid, nor the third. After pushing for answers over those two days we were still not told why that did not take place. We did not receive any reports or news regarding the fluid that was taken for investigation either. It was also made apparent to us his skin might get infected whilst at the hospital due to being diabetic, yet no precautions were taken to prevent or minimise the damages.
Whilst still not quite sound of mind doctors encouraged my Husband to sign blank documents on 3rd January, which we were only notified of after he had signed them. This is totally unacceptable as he was not fully receptive to what it was he was signing. The following day (4th January) my Husband was subject to having his head shaved. It might not sound of importance, but to him and ourselves it would have been more comforting to be with him at this time. When you are not in your senses you need comforting not to be manhandled in such a manner by strangers. We were also not informed that this would take place and feel very strongly against the fact that they did this without our knowing.
Over the following days my Husband had to have an operation which was not fully explained to us by and medical staff. They saw us as a nuisance and avoided having to speak with us throughout the morning of the operation. The medical officer said to us that she had already explained and spoken with the doctor and did not want to have to say it again. They once again made my family sign blank pages in order to be able to do his operation. At this time we had no option but to sign as he was in a desperate condition.
However, that does not excuse the bad practice of the hospital forcing our hand and making us sign the blank documents. Following the operation, we were not informed how it went or given any post-operative reports concerning his health.
At 12:45pm my Husband was in VP and doctors had to perform an emergency shunt operation. Given that it was invasive and life threatening surgery we expected him to stay in ICU, yet he was carted to the general ward at 6:30 pm, only six hours since his operation. Here there was no air conditioning and my Husband was complaining of shortness of breath and that he felt like he was suffocating yet nursing staff did nothing about this and left him in his bed. Before and after his operation we were again made to sign blank documents again, yet were not told what the operation involved or the outcome.
On the same day between 7:00 to 7:30 pm my Husband started haemorrhaging and suffered hematoma due to doctors or medical officials not being available or even present on the ward and quickly became paralysed with fluctuating BP again. We persistently asked the medical officers to check his BP and insulin levels, to which they replied we check every six hours! This is absolutely intolerable. My Husband had a major operation seven hours prior and no constant monitoring was being done. For any patient that is a basic requirement and is especially required when said patient has a pre-existing medical condition such as diabetes.
After another couple of hours had passed he worsened and around 11:30pm we called for staff to check on him. We were told his SPO2 was 100%, pulse 84 yet no monitoring of his BP. That is the most important thing that they should have been checking for a diabetic patient. We called for the doctor and medical officers who were named Gayatri and Nilesh refused to get anyone. They were extremely rude to us and not attentive to my Husband as you can see by what happened that evening.
Dr Harshil Shah performed the shunt operation yet the day before when I asked about the procedure of the operation, he and Manoj Gumber merely laughed at my son. They knew who he is and that he was concerned yet offered no explanations. They likened this situation to a car accident; that he is in the middle and ensued that they had no control which is why they wouldn’t explain anything to him. he felt bullied and isolated and had to search the procedure online as they would not give me any kind of details regarding my Husband’s operation which He sure they should do when the patient is not fully conscious. Later the anaesthetist explained the procedure very briefly but gave no full responses to any of our questions and sounded inconvenienced.
Dr Shah had prescribed a drug to be administered in order to try to control his BP post-op. It later became apparent that this had not been given and this was the reason for my Husband’s deterioration in health. Eventually one brother did check the BP, yet for such a long time there was no medical officer available from 11:30pm until 3:30 am to come and check him. However, he did this on the hand with a drip so how can this give an accurate reading? Also the equipment wires used were pealed and the wires were exposed! His BP reached 280+ and diabetes level at 388 and still no tablets were given to control this. Still at this point waiting for news from anyone on how his operation went, he was again moved into the Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU). We tried asking MOD Dinesh but he did not want to give us any answers. No insulin or any other controlling drugs were administered. One doctor on the ward called Dr Manoj Gumber said that they did not need to tie the BP cuff and should simply monitor him every 15 minutes. This may have been acceptable had they actually monitored properly. After he came back from his operation there weren’t any pre/post-operative reports. We would like to be given these as we to this day do not fully understand what happened in theatre.
We would like to know whether SICU is more intensive than ICU? If yes, please enlighten me why there are always waste bags in SICU! Not only does it look bad but it lessens hygiene standards and is a massive health risk to critical patients like my Husband. We also saw a rat on the third floor and mentioned this to Nilesh to take appropriate action yet he gave us only rude behaviour and did nothing about it. They suffered power cuts on SICU as well and monitors which gave inaccurate data many times. This is something they should take more seriously.
It took more than two hours to complete a CT scan, which showed that his haemorrhage had now formed clots, and they administered the incorrect dosage of insulin due to my Husband being transported from unit to unit. He was further subjected to two invasive operations within a single day due to the negligence of staff. After consulting with Dr Harshil Shah, he openly admitted to me that his second operation was caused by the negligence of the staff who had failed to give him his medication. Communication lessened between my family and the medical staff to a point where we were not informed that they had decided to perform dialysis on my Husband. This should have been a collective decision as he was not conscious and it is down to the family to say whether to go ahead or not. Given they had already decided, no paperwork was shown to us regarding the treatment, neither were any explanations of the processes involved. We were also notified of a disease he had yet were not given the name nor were there any alterations to my Husband’s care. Why is it that they felt that wasn’t something we needed to know about?
Since 19th January his senses were monitored by the doctors and medical officers. They persistently pinched the same spot on his ear each time. Due to his skin infection and the severity of their pinching it, the skin came off and became very sore to look at. The picture will be provided for you to see. This was very negligent behaviour as they could quite easily see it was damaged and infected and could have done a different part of his body. We also had yet more miscommunication as we were told on 21st January his POTAS was 6.3. We would like to have that chart given to us due to the different information we were receiving. On 27th we were again given wrong reports of POTAS so we would like the report for that day as well as we were misinformed it was -5.3.
His condition worsened to a point where he needed to be on a ventilator at all times and was in a coma until 21st February 2016. Due to being bedridden for such a long time he developed severe bed sores since 9th Feb when the head nurse pointed them out. They were very extensive covering large areas of his body. We understand this was going to happen, however there are preventative measures to ensure the severity of the bedsore is not so great. He was not given a soft air bed (advised by head nurse) nor was he given extra pillows for example between his legs. The fan was not readily available and the SPO2 was removed frequently due to being needed for many other patients. They very rarely moved his position to relieve pressure on areas of his body. As they worsened we were told that they would be dressed twice daily. This did not happen. If You need some pictures you to show the true severity of the bed sores which could have been much better maintained. We frequently asked the nurses to do something about the bed sores to which they always replied that they were nothing and not to worry about them. PRO head Kashmira had told nursing staff to be diligent and make sure they were dressed properly to not worsen their condition. There wasn’t any skin specialist to look at his bedsores at any point during his time at the hospital. Maybe you should speak to her and she will tell you the same thing I am telling you now and find out where the infection control team are quality teams are hiding.
Between 21st January and 20th February, the albulin injection that my Husband needed was not available at the hospital. I and my Son were told that we had to source it from somewhere else and bring it to the hospital in order to administer it. He suffered temperature of 93 and sudden low water content in his body yet they still continued. We would like to know why that was.
Once he had his injection it became apparent that they had overdosed. This was adding to the severity of the bedsores as a side effect yet still they did nothing to improve their condition.
His feeding was not sufficient nor monitored during his time at the hospital, especially whilst unconscious. As a diabetic they should have monitored his levels and adjusted a nutrition plan accordingly, yet they did not. This caused his POTAS to be affected and his BP constantly fluctuated and therefore his heart rate also wavered. After 20th January Kashmira stated he was to be moved back to the general ward as they needed the bed to be empty. At this time he was not conscious and not stable at all with his health and needed constant monitoring which was simply not being done.
His head dressing which was done after his shunt operation was totally inadequate. His staples were open and it was poorly maintained. Is it standard procedure to have such invasive surgery merely stapled afterwards? This could have quite easily been infected and caused even more damage to his already declining health. His bedsores were worsening due to lack of care exposing flesh all over his body. His insulin levels after 20th February were still not being constantly monitored and nurses showed a total disregard for his health. He also suffered poor maintenance of his catheter which was not properly administered nor cleaned or changed often enough.
On 12th February, Dr Harshil Shah ordered several tests to be done; VHCO3 and VWCO3 as he was unable to see after the redressing of his staples. To this date we do not know what they tests are for, what they involved nor the outcome. I would like to have the full reports given to us along with an explanation of what it was done for.
From 20th February onward my Husband was struggling with hypertension, Haypothermia and respiratory problems. Dr Monaj Gumber said that it was likely to be infection caused by the bedsores and not due to the tracheotomy he had done. Even though he had identified the cause of the infection still nothing was done about his sores! I was told we would receive the reports after six hours but we didn’t receive anything. I would like to be given these reports. On more than one occasion it was made clear to staff how often to move him and dress the sores yet this was just not adhered to. We asked for his reports that evening but the medical officer said everything was normal. This information was wrong as Dr Monaj Gumber said he was in the danger zone, and had been for the last 36 hours. They constantly made up test results, for example his BP was not recorded properly and they did not write down he suffered with hypothermia either.
The 21st February our family was called to say that he was stable, yet when we arrived the medical officer Vishal told us that he was in a critical state. How can you give two dramatically different pieces of information like that? In addition to this his time and cause of death were wrong. After he had passed we were given his body in an awful, gut-wrenching condition. It sickens me to think they find this acceptable; his slender body (due to losing roughly 25kg at hospital) had open bedsore all over. He had a stool still on his body which had not been cleared away – and this was three days before his death! There was an insulin syringe in his stomach, negligence from attending nurse Shipla, since when he was in SICU! The really sickening thing was that they were willing to send my Husband home two days prior to his death! I implore you to imagine this as your Relative. After reading everything that has happened to my Husband, the negligence of staff and the state his body was in when handed to us, would you tolerate it? Would you honestly sit back and think that their actions were totally justifiable? I doubt you can. Their actions caused my Husband’s death and we will not be giving up until justice is recognised so he can rest in peace, And till date we didn't recive discharged file and discharged report.patient was retire from Central Ground Water Board, Ministry of Water.
I would very much appreciate you contacting me via phone or email as soon as possible in order to resolve my issues with you personally.
Yours sincerely,
NIRMAL SHARMA

Indian Laws

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